SECOND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF PENNSYLVANIA - REPORT OF PROGRESS P. DESCRIPTION OF THE COAL FLORA OF PENNSYLVANIA AND OF THE CARBONIFEROUS FORMATION THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES BY LEO LESQUEREUX; ©1879 |
Tables of Contents:
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All Four Volumes: Scans and Webpage ©George Langford III, 2011 |
TROCHOPHYLLUM LINEARE | TROCHOPHYLLUM CLAVATUM |
Stems articulate, striate, with
a strong diaphragm traversing it at the articulations; branches
opposite, nearly in right angle from the articulations; leaves
verticillate, lanceolate, spathulate or lingulate, abruptly or
gradually acuminate, sometimes obtuse, even emarginate at the apex;
fructifications in tiong cylindrical spikes, with close articulations
and narrowly lanceolate bracts, bearing round sporanges in the axils of
the tieaves, or double, oval ones, pedicelate and attached in the
middle of the internodes. These plants appear to have lived in water. The mode of division of the branches in right angle, and the disposition of the leaves in whorls not exactly circular, but generally with longer leaves in the upper part and on the sides, show that the branchlets and leaves were expanded upon the surface of the water or the mud of the swamps. The internodes were hollow, closed at the articulations by a solid diaphragm, which is seen upon remains of plants in an advanced stage of decomposition, as a white round spot sur rounded by a ring, which unites the leaves at their base. |
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ANNULARIA LONGIFOLIA, Brgt.—Plate II, Figs. 1, 2, 2a, 2aa, Plate III, Figs. 10, 12.
Stem narrowly striate; leaves
in whorls of eighteen to twenty-four, lanceolate, spathulate, more or
less abruptly acuminate; medial nerve broad, distinct, fructifications
in long cylindrical spikes.Brgt. Prodr., p. 156. Germ. Verst., p. 25, Pl. IX. Gein., Verst., p. 10, Pl. XIX, Pl. XVIII, f. 8-9, (fruit). Roehl, Foss. Fl., p. 28, Pl. IV, f. 6, 15. Feist., Boem. Steink. fl., p. 128, Pl. XV, f. 1-4. Heer, Fl. foss. Helv., p. 51, Pl. XIX, f. 4, 5. Lesqx., Geol. of Penn'a, 1858, p. 852, Geol. Rept. of Ill., II, p. 444. Schp., Paleont. Veget., p. 848, Pl. XXII, f. 5-10. Annularia fertilis, St., Fl. d. Vorw., I, Pl. LI, f. 2. Annularia. spinulosa, St., ibid., p. 28, Pl. XIX, f. 4. Bruckmannia tuberculata, St., ibid., 1, p. 29, Pl. XLV, f. 2. Asterophyllites tuberculatus? Ll. and Hutt., Foss. fl., Pl. XIV, (fruit). Equiselum stellifolium, Harl., Trans., Geol. Soc. of Penn'a., 1, p. 261, Pl. XIV, f. 4, (1835). The leaves vary upon the primary stems from one and one half to five centimeters long, and from two to three millimeters broad. They are generally largest above the middle, gradually narrowing downward to the point of attachment, and more rapidly to the acumen. The midrib is broad, deeply impressed, and the borders of the lamina reflexed or convex, as seen Plate II, f. 2a, which, enlarged, shows the point of attachment to the ring, and 2aa, which represents the cross section of a leaf. Sometimes, especially upon shales, the leaves are flattened by decomposition and compression. F. 12, of Plate III, represents a fragment of a fruiting stem preserved in nodules. From outside appearance, it has the characters of the spike figured by Grand.'Eury, Fl. carb., Pl. VI, f. 1, as Volkmannia gracilis, St., or fructifications of Asterophyllites, while f. 10 of the same plate, partly reproduced from Grand.'Eury. l.c., f. 4, is referred by the French author to Bruckmannia tuberculata, St., considered as the fruit of Annularia longifolia. Possibly the specimen represented Plate III, f. 12, does not show the true character of the fructifications; for I have now from Cannelton a number of others, upon shale, which by thickness of the ribbed axis, disposition and form of leaves or bracts, are similar and where the ovules are not exactly axillary but placed between the whorls of leaves or in the middle of the internodes. This is seen by circular rows of deep points, scars of pedicels, even some of them still bearing fragments of pedicels, as in Plate III, f. 10. I cannot distinctly see upon these specimens if the ovules are double; for they are generally covered by the whorls of bracts, pressed upon them, or by large flakes of macrospores, derived from the ovules, and so abundant, per places, that they cover the whole axis between the whorls, even part of the bracts. These spores, one millimeter in diameter, are half globular on one side, triquetre or tricostate on the other, like those of the Lycopodiaceous, Atlas, Plate LXVIII, f. 7b, Plate LXIX, f. 9a, 13a. But on one of the specimens from Mazon Creek, some of the ovules are detached from the spike and scattered aside of it. They measure, flattened, one and an half millimeter in diameter and one of them is double, like those at the top of Atl. Plate III, f. 10 None however are open and no spores are visible. And still, another specimen represents a spike, twelve centimeters long, with the axis as broad as that of Plate III, f. 12. It has the articulations a little more distant, five to six millimeters, without any trace of points or scars of pedicels in the internodes. The ovules appear auxilliary and the whole is similar to the fine figure in Gein. Pl. XVIII, f. 8, copied in Schimper's Atlas, Pl. XXII, f. 8, as fruit of Annularia longifolia. From the evidence obtained of these fragments, we may well admit that they represent what the European authors consider as fructifications of Annularia longifolia, and also that these fructifications contradict the reference of these plants to the Equisetaceae. The character of the spores is positively Lycopodiaceous though the subdivision of the stem and the disposition of the leaves or whorls have the character of the Equisetaceae. The group of Annulariae appears therefore intermediate and distinct. It should have been separated by Brongniart or Grand'Eury who have both observed the characters of the spores. To this group is referable the plant described below as Trochophyllum lineare, which, as indicated from specimens discovered by Prof. E. B. Andrews, has Lycopodiaceous spores like Annularia, and inflated, club shaped, or linear obtuse leaves which though free to the base are in whorls and attached to semi-globose papillae which takes the place of the rings of Annularia.*
Habitat—Very common in the coal measures, especially in the lower strata above the millstone grit. |
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ANNULARIA INFLATA, Lesqx., Plate II, Fig. 2b, 2bb.
Stem obscurely striate, rather
smooth; branches and articulations as in the former species; leaves
rather longer, more numerous, inflated, semi-cylindrical, club shaped
and obtuse; costa none, or obscurely seen when the leaves are flattened
by compression.Geol. Rept. of Ill., IV, p. 423, Pl. XX, f. 1 to 3, (fine specimens). Schp., Paleont. Veget., III, p. 459. The essential character which separates this form from Annularia longifolia is the thickness of the leaves which, distinctly inflated, are club shaped and obtuse at the apex. This peculiar feature may be the result of habitat under water, or in more shaded localities; a casual inflation by superfluence or turgescence of the cellular tissue. The costa, then, is a central vascular bundle, as in leaves of Stigmaria. The number of leaves is somewhat greater, perhaps from the same cause. Schimper indicates for Annularia longifolia, twenty to twenty-six leaves per verticil. I could never see more than twenty to twenty-two upon the best preserved specimens, while in this species there are generally twenty-four to thirty-two in the large whorls. It is remarkable that the medial vein of this form is never seen flattened or depressed, as it always is, even in the inflated leaves of Annularia sphenophylloides, which apparently thicken sometimes under a similar influence. This form has not been remarked by European authors; and indeed I have never found it distinct or with inflated sub-cylindrical leaves, except in the concretions of Mazon Creek. Habitat—Mazon Creek, in nodules. I refer also to this form a few specimens from Cannelton. |
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Stem thick; branches closely
articulate; stem leaves long, erect, numerous; branch leaves shorter,
linear lanceolate, gradually acuminate. This species, beautifully represented by Schimper, l.c., is easily mistaken for a variety of Annularia longifolia. It is especially distinct by the long stem leaves, erect and appressed in whorls along the stem; by the more sharply acuminate leaves of the branches, which are not open, but curved at the base, and erect from the middle upward. The species is very rare in the coal measures of this continent, and I can refer to it only a few specimens from the nodules of Mazon Creek. The stems are a half to one and a half centimeters thick, when flattened; the leaves somewhat broader and shorter than in Annularia longifolia, some acuminate, others obtusely pointed, flat, of a thinner texture, the medial nerve being often preserved alone. Some of the specimens, with crowded top leaves, obtained in nodules, like that figured in Geol. Rept. of Ill., IV, Pl. XXI, f. 1., seem referable to this species. Habitat—Mazon Creek, in nodules. The best specimen I have seen, is No. 87 of the collection of fossil plants, in the museum of Princeton College. |
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ANNULARIA SPHENOPHYLLOIDES, Zenk., Plate II, Figs. 8, 9.
Stem slender; branches
opposite, in right angle to the stems; verticils fiat, twelve to twenty
leaves; leaves longer on the outside, spathulate, slightly emarginate,
or obtuse, or abruptly apiculate, more or tiess recurred on the borders.Galium spenophylloides Zenk., Leon. and Bronn., Jahrbuch 1833, p. 398, Pl. V. Annularia sphenophylloides, Gutb., Goea. v. Sachsen, p. 71. Gein., Verst. p. 11, Pl. XVIII, f. 10. Lesqx., Geol. of Penn'a, 1858, p. 852, Plate I, f. 5, 5a. Geol. Rept. of Ill., II, p. 444. Schp., Paleont. Veget. I, p. 347, Pk. XVII, f. 12, 13. Annularia brevifolia, Brgt., Prodr., p. 156. Heer, Fl. foss. Helv., IV, p. 51, Pl. f. 6-9. Annularia galioides, Ll. and Hutt., Foss. fl., Pl. XXV, f. 2. The leaves, of hard texture, vary from three to ten millimeters in length. With the disposition of the branches in right angle, and the close verticils, generally of the same size upon the same specimen, the plants present a very beautiful appearance, resembling small open roses flattened upon the stone. The large form with leaves more inflated, ten to twelve millimeters, resembles the smallest verticils of Annularia inflata. It has, however, a very broad medial nerve, and the apex of the leaves is either obcordate or tipped by a short acumen, (mucronate). In some specimens of this variety, the medial nerve is enlarged at the top of the leaves, forming a kind of receptacle, which resembles that of the fructifications of Trichomanes, a likeness still more remarkable when this enlargement of the nerve is, as generally, filled by a black pulverulent matter. Habitat—Found in most of the strata of the coal measures above the Millstone grit; abounds in the nodules of Mazon Creek. Is also at Cannelton and in the upper beds (Salem and Tunnel) of the Anthracite around Pottsville. |
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. Branches very slender, thread-like; internodes distant; verticils with few very small spathulate obtuse leaves; nerve indistinct. This plant is very small in all its parts; the stems as thin as thread; the internodes five to six millimeters long; the largest primary verticils only five millimeters in diameter, while those at the apex of the branches are scarcely two millimeters. The leaves, seven to eight in each verticil, are oblanceolate, larger above the middle, obtuse, gradually narrowed to the base. As remarked by Dr. Wood, Annularia minuta, Brgt. Prodr. p. 155, has not been identified. It is considered by Ettingshausen as a variety of Annularia radiata, Brgt., a plant of a totally different character, and I believe that we have in the specimen described above what the French author has mentioned under this specific name. Habitat—The fragment figured by Dr. Wood is in the cabinet of the Academy at Philadelphia, presented by Dr. Dixon, from the coal fields of W. Virginia. I have fragments of the same form from the Gate Vein, near Pottsville. |
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ANNULARIA RADIATA, Brgt.
Leaves long and slender,
gradually narrowing from the middle to the base and upwards to the
needle-pointed apex; verticils with few leaves, flat.Asterophyllites radiatus, Brgt., Class. d. veg. foss., Mus. d'hist. nat., VIII, Pl. XIII; f. 7, (not described). Gein., Verst., p.11, Pl. XVIII, f. 6, 7. Schp., Paleont, Veget., 1, p. 349. Annularia acicularis, Daws., Dev. pl., Quat. Journ. Geol. Soc., XVIII, p. 311, Pl. XIII, f. 16. Annulari radiata, St., Fl. d. Vorw., p. 31. The verticils of this species have ten to fourteen leaves, six to twelve millimeters long, one millimeter broad in the middle, and the costa indistinct. Habitat—It is rare in our coal measures, and apparently a sub-conglomerate species. I have seen a few specimens only of this, from a coal bed near Sharon, Tennessee, (sub-conglomerate.) |
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Stem comparatively strong,
distinctly striate, divided as in Annularia sphenophylloides; verticils a
little smaller; leaves oblanceolate, taper-pointed; costa none, or
immersed and obsolete. This plant has the same general aspect as the small forms of Annularia sphenophylloides, and also about the same number of leaves, but these are all gradually acuminate, or taper-pointed, from the middle upwards, and without any trace of nerve. The leaves are two to four millimeters long, less than one millimeter broad in the middle; the main stem a little more than one millimeter. It differs from Annularia minuta, by the larger and taper-pointed leaves; from Annularia Dawsoni, especially by the smaller size of the leaves, the absence of a costa, and the leaves more abruptly acuminate. I should, however, consider this last species as a large form of Annularia Emersoni, if the habitat was not so far different; Dawson's plant being referred to the Devonian, while the specimens we have, are all from an upper coal of the horizon of the Pittsburgh vein. Habitat—St. Clairsville, Ohio; roof shale of the coal. Mr. E. V. Emerson. |
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ANNULARIA DAWSONI, Schp.,
Stem slender; branches in right
angle; internodes somewhat distant; leaves in verticils of eight to ten
leaves, elliptical-lanceolate, narrow, acuminate.Paleont. Veget., 1, p. 350. Asterophyllites latifolia, Daws., Dev. pl., Quat. Journ. Geol. Soc., XVIII, p. 311, Pl. XIII; f. 17. Differs from the former by the slender rachis, the leaves longer, distinctly nerved, and the verticils more distant, with fewer leaves. The substance of the leaves is not thick, rather membranaceous than coriaceous; the medial nerve distinct from the middle downward is mostly effaced towards the acumen. From the mode of division of the branches in right angle, and the unequal shape of the verticils, this species is evidently an Annularia. Habitat—Warrior Coal seam, Ala. Mr. F. H. Aldrich. According to Prof. Dawson it is abundant in the lower coal of St. John, New Brunswick. |
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Plant herbaceous; stems
articulate, inflated at the articulations, pinnately, bipinnately
divided; leaves verticillate, sessile, wedge form, with lateral borders
entire, crenulate, dentate or laciniate-lobate at the upper margin;
medial nerve none; veins straight, dichotomous; fructifications in
cylindrical spikes, with bracts curved upwards in a sharp flexure from
near the base; sporanges globular, in the axils of the bracts.—Plate
III, f. 8, 9, copied from Grand'Eury, Fl. carb., Pl. VI, f.
11, as fructifications of Sphenophyllum oblongifolium, Gein. This genus, beautifully illustrated in Schp., Paleont. Veget., Pl. XXV, constitutes a natural group, without analogy to any other of the ancient or present vegetation. Its range of distribution is from the Silurian to the top of the Carboniferous. It is with Sphenophyllum, as with Asterophyllites, Annularia, etc. Some authors are disposed to refer it to the Phnogamous gymnosperms, while others consider it as positively related to the Equisetaceae, from the mode of division of the stems and the fructifications. These plants, like the Annularia, were evidently water plants, whose emerging branches were expanded upon the surface. Some species have the leaves more or less divided, of ten expanded in the upper part of the whorls, according, it seems, to their growth, either on the surface of the water or above it. |
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SPHENOPHYLLUM SCHLOTHEIMII Brgt. Plate II, Figs. 6, 7.
Verticils of five to nine
leaves; leaves broadly cuneate, rounded and crenulate at the upper
border; veins free at the base, much divided; spikes thick, cylindrical.Scheuchzer, Herb. diluv., p. 19, (1709). Palmites verticillatus, Schloth., Beitr., 1, p. 57, (1804); Petref., p. 396, Pl. f. 24, (1820). Rotularia marsileaefolia, St., Vers., II, p. 30, 33, (1820). Sphenophyllum Schlotheimii, Brgt., Prodr., p. 68, (1822). Germ., Verst., p. 13-16, Pl. VI. Coemans & Kickx., Monogr., p. 10, Pl. I, f. 1, 1a. Lesqx., Geol. of Penn'a., 1858, p. 852, Plate I, f. 8, 8b. Geol. Rept. of Ill., II, p. 444. Schp., Paleont. Veget., p. 339. Pl. XXV; f. 19-21. Sphenophyllum emarginatum, Gein.,Verst., p. 12, Pl. XX, f. 2, 2a, 7. This species, the most common and most beautiful of the genus, is easily known by the undivided rounded upper borders of the leaves, which often appear entire or very slightly crenulate, but are sometimes acutely dentate, as seen in our figure. The whorls vary much in diameter, the leaves being from one half to nearly two centimeters long, and equally as variable in width. The spikes are rarely found attached to stems bearing leaves, and therefore it is rarely possible to refer them to their species. Habitat—The whole thickness of the coal measures, from the millstone grit upward. |
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SPHENOPHYLLUM EMARGINATUM, Brgt.
Leaves narrower, truncate at the top, obtusely dentate, primary nerves confluent at the base.Class. d. Veget. foss., p. 234, Pl. VIII. Gein.,Verst., p. 12, pl. XX, f. 1, 3, 4. Heer, Fl. foss. Helv., IV, p. 53, Pl. XIX, f. 15. Lesqx. Geol. of Penn'a., 1858, p. 853. Geol. Rept. of Ill., II, p. 444. Schp., Paleont. Veget., I, p. 339. Var. Brongniartiannum, Coem & Kx., Monogr., p. 14, Pl. 1. Sphenophyllum Schlotheimii, Ll. & Hutt., Foss. fl., Pl. XXVII. This species differs from the former, merely by proportionately longer narrower leaves, cut horizontally (not rounded) at the upper margin, and the primary veins joined at the base and less divided. Its leaves resemble those of the main stem of Atl. Plate II, f. 6. The species is easily confounded with the former. Habitat—Upper coal measures. Anthracite basin of Pennsylvania, near Pottsville, Gate vein. Duquoin coal, Ill., etc., not common. |
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SPHENOPHYLLUM LONGIFOLIUM, Germ.
Stem long, robust; leaves
large, wedge form, bifid or entire at the upper border, with lobes
merely crenate, or deeply dentate, or cut in acuminate laciniae;
veinlets numerous.Sphenophyllites longifolius, Germ., Isis, p. 426, Pl. II, f. 2. Verst., p. 17, Pl. VII, f. 2. Sphenophyllum longifolium, Gein., Verst., p. 13, Pl. XX, f. 15-17. Coem. & Kx., Monogr., p. 17, Pl. I, f. 4, 4a. Schp., Paleont. Veget., I, p. 340, Pl. XXV, f. 22, 23. Sphenophyllum latifolium, Wood, Trans. Am. Philos. Soc., XIII, p. 347, Pl. VIII, f. 3. A beautiful, very large species of which we have many specimens showing its great variety. One of them, answering to the typical form, has the leaves three centimeters long, with the upper margin either merely crenate or obscurely bilobed, six in a whorl, forming nearly a circular verticil. The primary veins, two only, distinct and thick at the base, are repeatedly dichotomous in ascending, and Join the borders, divided in twenty-four to thirty veinlets. The epidermis of the leaves is transformed into a coaly layer, somewhat thick, and very closely lined lengthwise. To this form is referable Sphenophyllum latifolium, Wood, l.c., which, at first sight, seems too different to be considered as a mere variety. But I have for examination a large specimen which, by the diversity in the shape of the leaves, shows still more marked deviations from the type. Its stem, eight millimeters broad, is striate lengthwise by two or three narrow ribs; its surface both in the corticated and decorticated state is smooth and the articulations scarcely inflated. The verticils bear six to eight leaves, comparatively very long (six centimeters), only ten millimeters broad in the middle, some of them entire, merely crenate at the upper border or bilobate, the lobes one centimeter long or more, entire or cut into thin linear five to seven millimeters long. The veins, very distinct and in two at the base, are divided four times up to the border where the veinlets number twenty-four to thirty-two: This beautiful species is, however, rarely found preserved in such fine specimens as this one, or with stems bearing leaves; more generally the fragments are single whorls, with shorter leaves, like the typical form first described. Geinitz, l.c., has three figures, which represent the three varieties of this species as described here. Habitat—Rare but apparently distributed through the whole thickness of the middle coal measures. The specimen in the cabinet of Prof. Andrews is from Barnesville, Ohio, horizon of the Pittsburgh coal. I have a beautiful verticil in nodules from Mazon Creek. Some other fine fragments are from the coal of Cannelton, communicated by Mr. I. F. Mansfield, one representing exactly the form figured by Dr. Wood. Another with two whorls of broad leaves seventeen millimeters long, horizontally cut at the entire upper crenulate margin, is from Clinton, Mo., presented by Dr. J. H. Britts. |
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SPHENOPHYLLUM EROSUM, Ll. & Hutt.
Leaves narrowly cuneiform;
upper borders truncate and sharply dentate; primary nerves confluent at
base; veins six to twelve; verticils normally in six leaves, or in
twelve by subdivision.Foss. fl., Pl. XIII. Bunb'y., Quat. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. III, p. 430, Pl. XXIII. Coem. & Kx., Monogr., p. 19, Pl. I, f. 5, 5a, 5b. Heer, Fl. foss. Helv., IV, p. 53, Pl. XIX, f. 11-14. Schp., Paleont. Veget., p. 341. Sphenophyllum dentatum, Brgt., Prodr., p. 68 and 172. Sphenophyllum emarginatum, Gein., Verst., p. 12, Pl. XX, f. 6. Var. Saxifragaefolium, Coem. & Kr., Monogr., p. 21, Pl. I, f. 6c. Schp., Paleont. Veget., 1, P. 342. Rotularia polyphylla, St., Fl. d. Vorw., p. 42, Pl. L., f. 4. Sphenophyllum quadrifidum et fimbriatum, Brgt., Prodr., p. 68 and 172. Sphenophyllum trifoliatum, Lesqx., Geol. of Penn'a, 1858, p. 853, Plate I, f. 7. Sphenophyllites saxifragaefolius, Germ., Verst., p. 17, Pl. VII, f. 1. Var. Saxifragaefolium. Leaves wedge form, bipartite to below the middle; lobes cut into two deep, sharp teeth, or acutely dentate. Verticils as in the normal form in six or twelve by divisions. The species is very rare in the American coal measures; at least in its normal form. I have not seen any specimens positively referable to it. Of the variety I have a good specimen from the upper coal of Ohio, a long branch, with distant articulations, slightly inflated, marked by one or two strong ribs, and leaves one centimeter long, with scarcely distinct veins. Habitat—Roof shale of the St. Clairsville coal, horizon of the Pittsburgh coal. |
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SPHENOPHYLLUM BIFURCATUM, Lesqx., Plate II, Fig. 10, 10a.
Geol. Rept. of Arks., II, P. 309, Pl. f. 2. Schp., Paleont. Veget., 1, p. 344. Stem thick, deeply costate; articulations much inflated; whorls in six leaves, cut to below the middle of the two lobes, more or less deeply bidentate; primary veins separated to the base and distinct, effaced into the divisions; fructifications in narrow cylindrical spikes; sporanges large, nearly globular, slightly contracted to the point of attachment in the axils of linear-lanceolate, acuminate bracts, which are open, slightly curved upward. As Prof. Schimper remarks, in describing this species, l.c., it is so much like Sphenophyllum saxifragaefolium, that one might easily consider it as identical. The difference is, however, marked by the strongly inflated articulations of the stem, covered with a thick coaly cortex; by the regularity of the divisions in all the stems and branches of the specimens, and especially by the peculiar appearance of the leaves, which, sometimes cut in four or five lobes, have the lateral ones shorter, dichotomous-like, as in the subdivisions of the leaves of some Hymenophyllites. The fructifications also may serve as diagnosis to this species; for the bracts are not sharply folded at the base, a character generally considered as proper to this genus; but open, only curved up as in Asterophyllites, resembling those of the spike of Atlas, Plate III, f. 5. The spikes are not seen attached to branches bearing leaves, however, but three of these are parallel, as if derived from a branch upon the same specimen, which bears nothing besides these fructifications but leaves and fragments of this Sphenophyllum. The habitat of the species in the sub-conglomerate measures, at least as far as known until now, seems to confirm the assertion that it is truly different from the European plant. Habitat—Sub-conglomerate coal measures of Arkansas. Male's coal. Shale of the Harmon coal, near Hazelgreen, Ky., (sub-conglomerate.) The fruiting specimen (Sp. 13) is in the museum, comp. zool. of Cambridge. |
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SPHENOPHYLLUM CORNUTUM, Lesqx., Plate LVI, Figs. 5, 5b.
Stem thick, a little inflated
at the articulations, obscurely striate; branches nearly in right
angle; verticils in six leaves, joined above the base, broadly
cuneiform, divided from the middle into seven or nine linear, obtuse,
nearly equal lobes; veins distinct, flat, four to five at the base of
each leaf, forking once only, each division ascending to the top of one
of the lobes.Geol. Rept. of Ill., IV, p. 421, Pl. XIX, f. 1-5. I found this peculiar species at Colchester, and had the opportunity of observing it in many fragments, mostly small, as the shale of the coal is very brittle. I have seen, however, a few of the detached verticals, nearly entire, circular. Part of one is figured Plate LVI, f. 5a. The leaves appear as glued on the borders near the base; but the lines which pass from the base to the acute sinusses, are lines of separation of the leaves, and do not represent veins, for all the veins of the leaves of the genus correspond to an expansion of the lamina into lobes. As seen from some detached leaflets fixed upon the borders of the stems, whose base is broadly cuneiform, the connection is apparent only, and due to superposition of the borders. The epidermis of these leaves is thin, smooth, of a dull black color. Might not this peculiar form be merely a variety of the former species ? Besides the peculiar mode of divisions of the leaves, the nervation is of a different character. The veins are flat, sometimes appearing as double, on account of their slightly inflated parallel borders. The stem, also is scarcely ribbed, and its coaly surface is thin. The subdivisions of the leaves are of the same character in all the fragments observed, either of the stem or of the branches. Habitat— Colchester, Ill., horizon of the Morris coal. |
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SPHENOPHYLLUM OBLONGIFOLIUM, Germ.
Stems slender, striate,
inflated at the articulations, branches oblique, verticils in six
leaves, small obovate-cuneiform, bifid at the top; lobes entire; veins
simple at the base, forking once under the lobes.Sphenophyllites oblongifolius, Germ., Verst., p. 18, Pl. VII, f. 3. Sphenophyllum oblongifolium, Gein., Verst., p. 12, Pl. XX, f. 11-14. Coem. & Kx, Monogr., p. 26, Pl. I, f. 8, 8a. Schp., Paleont. veget., I, p. 344, Pl. XXV, f. 5-8, (9, bracts.) This description is made from a fine specimen bearing stem and branches. The leaves are very small, three millimeters long, one and a half to two millimeters broad in the upper part, all cut into two angular or taper pointed perfectly entire lobes, the leaves having only one primary nerve, simple, forking under the divisions and entering each of them. This specimen is in concordance of character with the figures and description of Germar, l.c., except that the leaves are not oblong or obovate, but distinctly wedge-form, gradually and equally narrowed to the base and thus somewhat like those of Sphenophyllum angustifolium of the same author. Schimper remarks in the synonymy of this species, about the figures given by Germar, that the teeth of the lobes have not been represented, and indeed his f. 6, l.c., has the lobes tridentate, but f. 7 has them entire; hence this difference is of no account. Habitat—Clinton, Mo., Dr. J. B.. Britts. |
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Branches slender, very long,
filiform; verticils of six leaves, the lateral twice as long as the two
inferior ones, all cuneiform, truncate at the upper margin; primary
nerves two or three, separated at the base, forking twice. There is often, in the verticils of Sphenophyllum, as in those of Annularia, an unequal disposition of the leaves, the lateral ones being somewhat longer than the others. But I have not seen, except in this species, this inequality so distinct and so persistent, for it is remarked without modification upon all and the whole of the specimens. The whorls being always composed of six leaves, the two lateral of each side are twice as long as those of the lower side. It is also remarkable that except in Sphenophyllum (Rotularia) oblongifolium, as figured by Germ. & Kaulf., Pfl. Abdr., Pl. LXV, f. 3, no fragment of any species of Sphenophyllum, is represented by the authors with leaves of unequal length. This peculiar conformation is explainable by the mode of growth of the plants in expanding their ramifications at the surface of the water, and for this reason, I should have been disposed to consider this species as a variety of Sphenophyllum erosum, on account of the truncate upper borders of the leaves, if the other characters had been identical. But it is not the case. In Sphenophyllum filiculme, the stem or branches are very long, flexuous and slender; the epidermis of the leaves is thick, and upon it the veins are very distinct; but it is easily effaced or detached in pieces, and the under surface does not show any trace of venation. These two characters are not remarked upon Sphenophyllum erosum. And still, the primary nerves, two or three, are separated to the base while they are united in Sphenophyllum erosum. These differences appear to be persistent, for I have been lately advised by Prof's. Fontaine and White that they have found the species in numerous specimens in the upper coal measures of Virginia, and that from careful examinations they consider it positively different from any others of the Genus. Habitat—The whole extent of the coal measures. I have from Clinton, Mo., a fine specimen, a simple branch, twelve centimeters long, received from Dr. J. H. Britts. Others are from Newport, Rhode Island; others still, from Gate Vein, New Philadelphia and Pottsville, Pa. |
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This generic name is employed by Schimper for the description of spikes
comparable to those of Atl., Plate III, f. 17, 19, generally but still
doubtfully considered as fructifications of Asterophyllites. |
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Spikes very long and comparatively narrow; scales appressed, linear, obtuse. These spikes placed in the same direction, about one dozen of them, upon the same piece of shale, and flattened by compression, are seven to eight millimeters in diameter and fourteen centimeters long, some of them flexuous. The articulations, two millimeters distant, are covered with appressed, linear scales, joined on the borders, truncate or obtuse, about of the same length as the articulations. The spikes differ from all the species referred by the author to this genus, first, by their great length compared to their width, and especially by the obtuse scales, which closely appressed and covering the whole stem, rather resemble those of Machrostachya than those of Calamostachys. The spikes are longer than those figured by Geinitz as Asterophyllites foliosus, Verst., p. 10, Pl. XVI, f. 4; twice as long and merely slightly broader than those of the splendid specimen of Roehl, Paleont., XVIII, Pl. VII, f. 1, described. as Volkmannia elongata, and these two last species have the scales lanceolate acuminate. I should rather consider these spikes as referable to a new species of Macrostachya, but as yet no stem referable to this genus has been observed in connection with them. Habitat.—Pittston, Pa., Ontario Colliery, Vein C, communicated by Mr. R. D. Lacoe. |
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Plants arborescent, articulate;
articulations close, cortex thin, smooth or very thinly striate;
impressions of the internal surface plano-costate; furrows very narrow,
alternating at the articulations; leaves appressed, linear, carinate in
the middle, or marked with a medial nerve, acuminate, finally truncate;
leaf scars marked upon the articulations by transversely ovati rings,
like the links of a chain; scars of branches verticillate, large,
round, umbonate, with a stigmarioid central manilla; spikes very large,
cylindrical; bracts lanceolate, costate in the middle, imbricate,
scarcely longer than the internodes. |
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MACROSTACHYA INFUNDIBULIFORMIS, Schp.—Plate III, f. 14, 17-20. Schp., Paleont. Vega., p. 333, Pl. XXIII, f. 13-18 (stems and spikes). Equisetum infundibuliforme, Bronn, in. Bishoffs, Crypt. Gew., I, p. 52, Pl. VI, f. 4, 9, 10. Brgt., Hist. d. Veg. foss., p. 119, Pl. XII, f. 14-16. Gutb., Verst., p. 30, Pl. III b, f. 5, 6. Germ., Verst., Pl. XXXII, f. 3, as Equisetum. Weiss, foss. fl., p. 122. Grd' E, Fl. carb., p. 48, Pl. XXXII, f. 1. Equisetites infundibuliformis, Gein., Verst., p. 3, Pl. X, f. 4-7 (8 ?), (Pl. XVIII, f. 1 ?). Calamites verticillatus, Ll. & Hutt., II, Pl. CXXXIX. Calamites Germarianus, Goepp., Foss. fl. d. Uebergsg., p. 122, Pl. XLII, f. 1. Huttonia Carinata, Germ., Verst., p. 90, Pl. XXXII, f. 1, 2. Asterophyllites tuberculata, Lesqx., Geol. of Penn'a., 1858, p. 852. Asterophyllites aperta, Lesqx., Ibid., p. 852, Pl. I, f. 4. The characters are the same as for the Genus.
My specimens represent two fragments of stems without leaves. These are known to me only from the description of Schimper, which I have translated here. Both specimens are much alike, one eight centimeters broad, with the scars of the spikes a little more than two and a half centimeters in diameter, the other in nodules, four and a half centimeters broad, has the scars one and a half centimeters transversely measured. Both have only one row of large scars, and under it the stem is closely articulate, the internodes being on both specimens only one centimeter wide. In the nodules, the leaf scars are very distinct, transversely oval, as in Schp., f. 14, l.c., nearly five millimeters horizontally, and two and a half vertically, bearing in the center a small circular mamilla. The spikes are not always curved, as figured in Geinitz, but generally straight, oblong, or larger in the middle, narrowed upwards, acuminate, Atlas, Plate III, f. 19, and equally narrowed downward, either to a short pedicel or to a point of attachment, Plate III, f. 18 and 19. The scales closely imbricated, are linear, contiguous on the borders to near the apex, where they are triangular acute, as at top of Plate III, f. 17, or contracted into a sharp acumen, as Plate III, f. 19 and 19a. Their apex is rarely distinguishable; for they are so closely appressed that the upper part of an inferior verticil imbricating the lower part of a superior one, they become confused by compression, and also generally broken. I am not certain that Plate III, f. 20 represents the same species. It may be a spike, in an advanced stage of maturity, with open verticils. It is described and figured from a deficient fragment in Geol. of Penn'a., 1858, l.c., as Asterophyllites aperta. The axis is striate, gradually enlarged upwards from the base, and the scales, all truncate, form across the stem a succession of open verticils like fluted collars. From the narrowed base of Plate III, f. 19 and 20, and also from the description of a fragment given with Asterophyllites foliosus, it would seem that these spikes were short pediciliate, while the impression, Plate III, f. 18, which evidently represents the base of a spike of this species, tends to show that they were rounded and narrowed to a sessile base. Plate III, F. 18 may represent the cross section of a spike near its base. Schp., f. 17, l.c., copied from Germar, shows at its base a short smooth pedicel, quite narrow comparatively to the spike. And Atlas, Plate III, f. 20, may represent a different species, even, as said above, be referable to another genus. The figure of a spike of Machrostachya, as reconstructed by Grand'Eury, Fl. carb., l.c., represents the scales coming out in right angle from the rachis, abruptly bent upwards and imbricated at or near the apex. Atlas, Plate III, f. 20 may be compared to that of the French author, in supposing that we have here the representation of the inside of a spike, with the horizontal base of scales preserved, while the upper part has been destroyed. But in the specimen which is represented, Geol. of Penn'a, l.c., the verticils are merely half open, inclined upwards from their base, in the same position as those of Atlas, Plate III, f. 19. Habitat—Nodules of Mazon creek, Mr. S. S. Strong, Cannelton coal, the largest stem, and a number of spikes, some intermediate in size between Plate III, f. 17 and 19. Specimens Plate III, f. 18 and 20 are also from the same locality, all obtained by Mr. I. F. Mansfield. |
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Plants arboreseent; stems
articulate; articulations surrounded with more or less distinctly
costate sheaths, deeply dentate on the border. |
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Stems small, narrowly ribbed lengthwise; sheaths long and thick, cut at the margin in short, triangular, acute, large teeth. I have many specimens in nodules and. one upon shale which seem to represent all the same species. One is the lower part of a stem, three centimeters broad, narrowed and rounded to the base, where it shows traces of short articulations. It is narrowly but distinctly striate, and except from near the point of attachment, there is no articulation but the one preserved with the sheath, four centimeters above the base. The line or articulation at the base of the sheath is marked by transversely oval scars precisely like those of Macrostachya infundibuliformis. The divisions of the sheath as indicated by a strong nerve, ascending to the points of the teeth, are about five millimeters broad, the teeth, partly imbedded into the stone, are short, apparently like those of Plate III, f. 16. Atl., Plate III, f. 15 is also a sheath from a specimen in nodules. It is exactly represented, and is, like that of the former, of a very coarse texture, with thick, prominent nerves. It is narrowed and rounded to the base towards the line of insertion which is about one centimeter in diameter. Another specimen of the same kind shows the teeth distinctly as in Plate III, f. 16, which is from a specimen upon shale flattened and not quite distinct in its lower part. It appears doubly nerved and may represent a different species. Organs of this kind are extremely rare in our coal measures. I have never seen any in a tolerable state of preservation except those of the nodules. Habitat—Nodules of Mazon Creek, Mr. S. S. Strong. Cannelton Coal, the specimen Plate III, f. 16; Mr. I. F. Mansfield. |
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PLANTS DOUBTFULLY REFERABLE TO CALAMARIAE. |
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TROCHOPHYLLUM, Lesqx., (nec Wood).
Branches of small size,
cylindrical; articulations marked by small tubercles scars of the
points of attachment of the leaves; leaves verticillate, free to the
base. The name Trochophyllum was proposed by Dr. Horatio C. Wood, Proc. Acad. of Nat. Sci., Phil., Oct., 1860, p. 438, as a substitute for Annularia, which is preoccupied in the sub-kingdom of Mollusca by Schumacher, Essay Nat. Syst., 1817. Annularia, Brgt., Prodr., 1828, has been admitted by all the Phytopaleontologists of Europe, and the precedence in the use of the name for mollusca cannot authorize its elimination, employed, as it is, for a fossil plant. Even Hochstetter has taken the name of Annularia in his Fl. II, p. 680, (1841), for a group of plants of the Apocyneae. Moreover, as a generic name, Trochophyllum, which merely signify leaves in whorls, is too indefinite, and also not appropriate for plants whose leaflets are joined at their base by a ring (annulus). It may be used, as I do it here, for the provisory description of too incomplete vegetable remains representing a character common to different genera, and which has to be elucidated by subsequent researches. As seen by the descriptions of the so-called species, one of them is apparently referable to the Lycopodiaceae. |
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Branches slender, indistinctly articulate; leaves in close verticils,
linear, oblique, rounded and narrowed to the point of attachment. The stems are only one and a half millimeters broad and flattened equally in their whole length, with articulations indicated merely by the small gibbous points of attachment of the leaves, like small tubercles closely placed in circular rows. The articulations are not quite one millimeter distant, the leaves broader than the stems, one to one and a half millimeters, rounded at the base to the point of attachment, or to a very short pedicel, and then linear, apparently obtuse, without any trace of costa. They were it seems of thin or soft texture. Flattened upon the stone, they become effaced or broken in the upper part as seen Plate III, f. 24 and 25, so that the apex is scarcely distinct. Plate III, f. 25b shows the scars much enlarged. They are not joined by grooves or striae.*
Habitat.—Found in a quarry of a sub-carboniferous sandstone at Newark, Ohio, by Dr. Roeminger, State Geologist of Michigan. The specimens, two only, are very small. The compound is a ferruginous soft grained sandstone. |
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Stem indistinctly articulate,
striate lengthwise between the scars; leaves in right angle, ten to
twelve in a verticil, as seen from the scars of the surface, spatulate,
obtuse, marked in the middle by a medial nerve, inflated toward the
point. The branches four millimeters broad in the flattened state, were exactly cylindrical, and of the same size in their whole length, without transversal line of articulations. The verticils of leaves are about three millimeters distant, the leaves in right angle to the stem, eight to ten millimeters long, enlarged towards the obtuse apex, and gradually narrowed from below the middle to a small round point of attachment. As seen from Plate III, f. 21a to 23, the scars are round, deep points under the bark, alternate (Plate III, f. 21a), with a narrow ridge descending on both sides, and passing across and a little below the scars of the inferior verticils. Upon the bark, the leaf scars appear like small tubercles, either pointed or concave in the middle, Plate III, f. 22-23a, enlarged. The narrow striae depending from the scars, Pl. III, f. 23a, have the appearance of alternate short flat ribs. The articulations are not enlarged, but merely marked by the position of the leaves and of their scars. The bark is comparatively thick; the leaves often immersed upon the stone are rarely distinct, the lateral ones only are preserved. These fragments have a kind of relation by the scars and the ribs of the stems to Equisetites mirabillis, St., Eleutherophyllum mirabile, Stur. Could they be branches of this remarkable species, so rare and so little known ? Habitat—Found in a bed of friable black shale in the barren measures, about one hundred feet lower than the Pittsburgh coal, between Irwin station and Pittsburgh, Pa. Mr. W. D. Moore. |
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